Tag: Occupy AIPAC

About eighty protesters in Portland yet again protested the annual Oregon American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) gathering on April 29th. This year’s event was marked by an even greater amount of paranoia and secrecy by AIPAC: the event was not widely announced, the keynote speakers were not promoted, the media was not invited, people who tried to attend were arbitrarily refused entry, and the guests were subjected to searches of purses and metal detectors after passing checks by police and AIPAC security.

AIPAC is one of the most powerful lobby organizations in the United States and promotes right-wing hard-line policies in support of Israel. Former Israeli Knesset member Avraham Burg described AIPAC as “a kind of a filter which filters only darkness through it, rather than light through it. And I would like to see the alternative American Jewry, which is expressed through the liberalism and humanism and civil rights and a total commitment toward peace, as the one which expresses me.” AIPAC is currently promoting aggressive sanctions and support for military action against Iran.

Portland, Oregon. A coalition of peace, human rights, and Palestine solidarity organizations announced today that they would hold a demonstration outside the annual Oregon fund-raising dinner of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, April 29. The demonstration will protest AIPAC’s role in promoting a military attack on Iran’s nuclear energy facilities. The protest is also calling for an end to U.S. military aid to the Israeli apartheid government, which refuses to halt the construction of illegal settlements and routinely violates the human rights of Palestinians living under Occupation. Israel controls the lives of more than 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but denies them the right to vote or to exercise their right to self-determination.

Some Oregon political leaders have regularly attended AIPAC’s annual fundraiser in past years. This year the protesters are asking Oregon’s leaders to represent their constituencies’ opposition to another unjust war in the Middle East by boycotting AIPAC’s gala. Among the groups protesting are Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights (AUPHR), Jewish Voice for Peace – Portland (JVP), Occupy Portland, Peace and Justice Works – Iraq Affinity Group, and Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER).

Over 130 Groups Urge Obama to Reject Netanyahu’s Policies about War on Iran and Palestinian ConflictProtests and Events Planned Throughout Weekend Expose AIPAC Lobby as a Barrier to Peace

Washington, DC – The Occupy AIPAC coalition is gathering to urge Obama to reject the Israeli administration’s push for war on Iran and insist on respect for Palestinian rights. Timed to coincide with the annual AIPAC policy conference, the Occupy AIPAC summit will be a long weekend of events and protests that draw attention to the role of AIPAC as a special interest lobby that maintains a stranglehold over US policies. As the Occupy Movement has focused public ire on the role of large corporations and powerful lobby groups, hundreds will gather in DC to protest AIPAC’s push for war.

The Occupy AIPAC summit, organized by CODEPINK, is endorsed and supported by a variety of groups including the Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB), the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, Occupy groups and over 130 others.

“After 10 years of war, the American people need a foreign policy that focuses on diplomacy, but AIPAC takes us down the dangerous path of war with Iran,” CODEPINK cofounder and Occupy AIPAC organizer Medea Benjamin said. “We are gathering to demand that our leaders break with AIPAC’s disastrous path of attacking Iran, as well as supporting Israel’s human rights violations and illegal settlements in the West Bank.”

Schedule of planned actions includes a Middle East Summit on Saturday, March 3 and protests on Sunday, March 4. See details below or visit OccupyAIPAC.org.

Answer: you will both be in Washington DC for policy conferences in just a few weeks…

Dear friends,

It’s true. This year, both Netanyahu and Peres will be present at the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, along with a high number of our Congressional representatives. With the objective of pushing for war on Iran and justifying the ongoing, egregious violations of Palestinian rights, AIPAC will convene in Washington DC.

Under the banner of Occupy AIPAC, this long weekend will include a policy summit with panels on Iran, the Arab uprisings, Palestine/Israel and AIPAC, film screenings, mass protests, a teach-in on diplomacy and alternatives to war, creative actions, a cultural night, workshops, and a Capitol Hill policy briefing on the impact of U.S. military aid to Israel on Palestinians.

Now is the time to make a large, people-powered push to oppose the Israel lobby’s stranglehold of our government. During this weekend, we will challenge the Israel lobby in their pursuit of war with Iran and promote a just foreign policy in the Middle East- in the streets and with our teach-ins and discussions.

Chris Hedges was the Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times. He is an Arabic speaker and spent seven years in the region, including many months in the Israeli occupied territories. Hedges, who was part of a team at the paper that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for their work on global terrorism, is an outspoken critic of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as well as a fierce opponent of the Iraq war. He left the New York Times after being issued a formal written reprimand to stop speaking out against the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a restriction he refused to accept.

Hedges has authored nine books including the best sellers War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and Death of the Liberal Class. His newest book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he wrote with the graphic illustrator Joe Sacco, is due out in June.

The neo-con rag Commentary had an especially tendentious post on its blog Contentions on Friday proving for themselves beyond a shadow of doubt that there exists a grand conspiracy between Marxism, anti-Semitism, the Occupy movement, and the US Campaign to “sabotage or at least overshadow the AIPAC event,” by organizing Occupy AIPAC.

Let’s leave aside for the moment the hypocrisy of a magazine formerly dominated by Communists (who then found the light in shucking for American imperialism) engaging in McCarthyite red baiting. Um, dudes, the 1950s was like so last century.

I can’t figure out if this blog post is the result of sloppy journalism, or a hatchet job, or most likely a combination of the two. First off, they give us credit for organizing Occupy AIPAC. Thanks for the publicity, but we’re actually just one of more than 100 organizations endorsing the event and promoting it. (As we mentioned in our email last week, we’ll also be doing workshops and organizing a Congressional Hill briefing for it.)